Friday, October 23, 2015

We had the blessing of returning to Indian Rocks Beach Florida over Dawson's fall break last week.

Day 1: Denver

Any vacation that begins this way is optimistic in my book:

Especially if you're able to convince your 3 year old to handle the luggage in the airport.

Day 2: Traveling

And speaking of said 3 year old, I'm still exhausted from the effort I put forth in keeping him entertained on the flights. We are currently pricing private jets as a result.

We landed in sunny Florida on Tuesday afternoon with this view from our balcony. We were in the same condo as last year but had to rent a different unit which was actually a dive. But a dive with a view. Which is how I imagine most non-hollywood famous residents are able to afford to live in California.

It was late by the time we got unpacked and bought groceries so we called it a night.

Day 3: The Beach

Of course the following day we wasted no time and headed to the beach.

Jason let me go for a run and I took a short video of the ocean because I love that sound. Maybe you can play it on repeat and use it to help you sleep at night.

This whole day was spent at the beach.

Evan loves to dig. He ran back and forth from the ocean to his hole in the sand to fill his hole with water. After just one trip, he says "Mommy, help me. It's teamwork." I said "Where on earth did you learn about teamwork?" "Spongebob," he said matter of factly.

We went for a walk along the beach and we spotted a bird pecking at a dead fish so we went to investigate. The fish turned out to be a shark and Dawson picked it up.

After a few seconds of holding it, Dawson said "Uh, I think the shark is alive!" And the shark started to flap it's fin. Do sharks flap fins? Wiggle? Whatever. So he threw it back into the ocean and we never saw it again. Thankfully. Because I told Dawson if I got attacked by a shark later that day I'd hold him personally responsible. And that is the true story of how Dawson rescued a shark on vacation. Which pretty much makes him a marine biologist.

While planning our vacation, we decided we would give LegoLand a shot this year. In order to make this happen, I spent several weeks selling as much junk treasure as I could on a garage sale FaceBook Group I'm in. This helped tremendously and we made all the money we needed in order to buy cheap tickets on the black market. Otherwise, tickets are $90 per person. I could have purchased two chrome shoe racks on Amazon for that price. Before we get to pictures, I'll share the lowdown on LegoLand, in case any of you are actually interested in going there.

Purchase tickets through Costco (we actually ordered them through Costco online). They are $55 a piece. Much cheaper. And with the money left over you can buy me a gift.

If you're able, go in the fall. We basically had the park to ourselves, and the ride wait time was less than 5 minutes on every ride. Actually, most rides had no line and we were able to get on immediately and were told we could just stay on when the ride was over if we wanted to.

You can bring your own food and drinks.

Most rides require children to be at least 36" tall. So if you have little kids, they will enjoy the park much more when they reach that height.

Dawson loved LegoLand because he's in a huge Lego phase right now and has gone so far as to actually sort out ALL of his Megablocks and put them in a container and gave them to his brother.

We had to find a ride for Evan quick, before we started the day with a meltdown.

I personally am rather fond of this picture, even though the girl on the left seemed rather disgusted by sheer awesomeness.

Hands in the air Evan. Or, you can put them at a 90 degree angle like you are surrendering at gunpoint. It bothers me that the blue shoe kid didn't have his shoe tied.

Since many rides that Dawson could ride, Evan couldn't, Jason and I would take turns and one of us would ride something with Evan while the other was with Dawson. this little safari ride had Lego lemurs. I loved them.

We took the boys to a show: Brick Beard's Pirate something or other. Probably not the actual title. But there is skiing and people dressed up like Lego's so it was entertaining.

Evan loved the opportunity to drive his own car.

It was serious business though when it became a race.

Located in the center of the park is an area called "MiniLand" which has Lego sculptures.

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted... except for Dawson.

I looked exactly how I felt: A tired, sunburned, grumpy person who could be mistaken for someone who had just been run over by a truck.

On our way home, we stopped at a local favorite called Crabby Bill's where Jason ordered enough food to feed himself and a small island. You'll the see the plate of fries that belong to Evan on the left. All he eats is fries. All of you wish you could have a child so picky.

Day 5: Dolphin Watch Tour

Each day we tried to spend as much time as we could at the beach before taking off on an adventure. If you see two boys floating in the middle of the ocean while you're out and about, let me know.

Jason showed me this long row of clams that had washed up on shore and they were still alive!

Evan could have spent each and every day in the pool.

Jason had done some research and found that the best dolphin watch tour (according to Yelp reviews) was on a small tugboat called "Little Toot".

So we went to Clearwater Beach that afternoon. May I remind you that the sand there is imported.

We actually went for a walk on Pier 60 this year which made me feel a bit Diva. Until I saw the bird poop on the guard rails.

Once it was time to head to the bay area for our tour, a nice guy offered to take our family picture.

We spent the entire tour going all over the Gulf and never spotted one single dolphin.

Evan got bored.

I saw this house and told Jason we should buy it.

And as we were on our way back to the marina, we got a call that another tour boat had found some dolphins. So our captain extended our tour and took us back out so that we could see them. Check out this awesome picture I got of one jumping! Is he jumping? because they don't have legs. So.

We spent Saturday morning scouring the ocean for sea life and Dawson and I found hermit crabs. This haus wanted to eat me and to prove it, I got a picture of it coming out of it's shell toward my face.

Dawson found an empty bigger shell and Jason told him to put the shell in the bucket with the hermit crab to see if he would change shells. He did and Jason got video. I'm glad he changed shells, because the nasty ghetto shell he was currently inhabiting was covered in barnacles and they make my skin crawl.

That afternoon, we met Jason's Aunt Karolyn and her husband John in a quaint little Greek town called Tarpon Springs. It's known for it's spongedocks and Greek food.

We visited a small aquarium there.

Dawson was fascinated by this remora fish that kept attaching itself to his arm